Honours Cognitive Science of Language (B.A.)

Admission

Completion of any Level I program and a Grade Point Average of at least 5.0 including an average of at least 5.0 in LINGUIST 1A03 , 1AA3  and PSYCH 1F03  or 1X03 .

Notes

1. Students should be aware that, PSYCH 1XX3  (or 1FF3 ) requires either Grade 12 Biology U or BIOLOGY 1P03  as a prerequisite. Please note, however, that students can complete BIOLOGY 1P03  and PSYCH 1XX3  (or 1FF3 ), 2E03 , 2H03 , 2NF3  in their second year of studies.
2. Students must include LINGUIST 2D03  in Level II or III of their program in order to take any Level IV seminars in Linguistics.
3. At some time during the program, students must meet a laboratory requirement by completing one course from Course List 1 below. 
4. In this program students are required to complete 12 units of language courses other than English, of which at least six units must be in a single language. Courses taught in English do not satisfy this requirement. The following languages are offered at McMaster:
   Romance Languages: French, Italian, Spanish
   Classical: Greek, Latin, Sanskrit
   Other Indo-European Languages: Farsi, German, Russian
   Non Indo-European Languages: American Sign Language, Arabic, Cayuga, Chinese (Mandarin), Hebrew, Inuktitut, Korean, Japanese, Mohawk, Ojibwe
5. Students registered in Level IV of any Honours or Combined Honours program in Linguistics or Cognitive Science of Language with a Grade Point Average of at least 9.0 may apply to register in the Honours Thesis course (LINGUIST 4Y06 A/B ) where they would conduct an individual research project under the supervision of a faculty member.
6. Students interested in doing graduate work in Speech and Language Pathology should consult with the Departmental Counsellor for the Cognitive Science of Language program.
7. Students in the Honours or Combined Honours program in Cognitive Science of Language are encouraged to consider additional Linguistics elective offerings (see ‘Department Notes’ for Linguistics course offerings).
8. The Faculty of Humanities introduced a new requirement for all Humanities degree students starting in 2024-25. The Skills for Life Concurrent Certificate comprises 18 units that provide a foundation for students to develop important academic and career-relevant skills such as oral and written communication, critical thinking, and digital literacy. The mandatory requirements below assume successful completion of HUMAN 1DL3 , HUMAN 1HL3  and HUMAN 1VV3  in Humanities 1. Students transferring to Humanities programs beyond Level 1 are exempt from the concurrent certificate. Please see Faculty of Humanities Academic Regulations for more information.

Course List 1

• LINGUIST 4D03 - Computers and Linguistic Analysis
• LINGUIST 4EL3 - Laboratory in Experimental Linguistics
• LINGUIST 4II3 A/B S - Independent Study
• LINGUIST 4NN3 - Laboratory in Cognitive Neuroscience of Language
• LINGUIST 4PL3 - Advanced Programming for Linguistics
• LINGUIST 4Y06 A/B - Honours Thesis

Requirements

Students who entered Honours Cognitive Science of Language (B.A.) prior to September 2025 should refer to the Undergraduate Calendar of their entry year and their individual advisement report for their program requirements.
 

120 units total (Levels I to IV), of which 48 units may be Level I